What are some well known schools that you've paid big bucks for and did NOT find worth it. Give a detailed explanation.

I'll start:
TVI Studios-
Yes, you can get the opportunity to meet with some of the top Agencies and Casting Directors, but I DON'T recommend this school for when you're starting out. It's ONLY good if you're already pretty polished as an actor. When I was starting out, I made the mistake of paying $1000 for 3 classes and the silly yearly membership.

The classes are taught by mostly casting directors or people who weren't groundbreaking for me. The problem that I found with studying with the casting directors was it was more on what THEY wanted and NOT what EVERY casting director wants in general. One such class was the commercial class. We spent one whole class on how to slate or more specifically how THAT casting director likes people to slate. There is no right way as long as you do it with conviction! It's after you study at different schools when you realize the classes at TVI aren't the best. The classes can ONLY benefit you if you're a polished actor and impress that casting director for him or her to want to invite you in to read for them.

The membership is stupid. It costs close to $400 alone with a yearly sliding scale of $300, $200. Yes it gives discounts, but only at most $100 on $300-500 classes. It was cool when the casting director workshops were free with this membership, but now TVI is charging money for even members to attend the workshops. NOT COOL! It's not like they have Casting Directors or Agents that I can't meet at cheaper places like Network Studios or Reelpros.

Once again, ONLY good if you're a polished actor.

TVI sucks Try again !

Good information to know. Thanks.

Yeah that is good to know.

I did come across their website but I also did some research and heard the same things you said or worse from other people...

I also was looking into NYFA but they don't get good reviews for their acting program...

Seems to me, and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. That if you want acting specific programs outside a formal education then individual classes is the way to go.

There doesn't seem to be one school which is good at taking a green actor and getting them ready for a career in Hollywood. A little frustrating to discover but glad I did the research before spending any money on a "school" which won't do me any good in the end...

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There doesn't seem to be one school which is good at taking a green actor and getting them ready for a career in Hollywood.

It really depends on which school you are referring to.

In New York, Acting School/Studio like Esper Studio, HB Studio, Atlantic Acting School, and Neightborhood Playhouse, Stella Adler Studio, Lee Strasberg Institute offer classes for beginning Actors. The actors will really gain a strong foundation in the technique.
There are Acting Coach who also offers a smaller-scale classes for beginning and working actors. (Exp: Joanna Beckson, Catherine Gaffigan, Anthony Abeson, Penny Templeton, Kim Kimball, and Bruce Ornstein, etc)

So yes, an Actor will aquire all the tools needed to perform. But that doens't guarantee the Actor will be ready to dive right into Hollywood.

And often, the "Business of Acting" is not taught in schools... Actors usually have to learn it the hard way, from friends, spend more money on Books, and Workshops/Seminars.

(But I've noticed a lot of acting school are starting to add "business of Acting" and "Audition Technique" as supplemental classes)

Like what was mention by TRUTHTELLER, TVI Studios is more suitable for working actors. Actors who are more interesting in sharpen up their Audition Technique, learning what to expect from Casting Directors, and the business of Acting in general. I have taken clases there, and I don't think it is bad. It all depends on what you are expecting from the school, and what you take away from the class.

Any more overrated schools that you went to and wish you didn't waste your money on?

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Ok, I'll submit my question in this thread.

1) My experience. My first teacher was from NY, studied Meisner and theater there, and was a CD in LA for years. Her class was dead serious and she didn't let any sh1t slide. Class was a special time, and there was a sacredness to the space and happenings there that in retrospect have set a high-water mark I haven't found a class to match since. It came from her high standards, respect for the work, and the drive towards ultimate emotional truth. She was not directorial, beyond suggesting basic activities and blocking. She was very direct. "Get what you want. Get what you want." If things didn't work, she'd get emotional. When she yelled, it was because she cared and knew you could do better. For me, it worked. I'd compare her to Stella Adler. The lessons I learned there were slow in coming but they were carved from my own awarenesses and experiences, and they were gold. It was a challenging class and just listening to her talk could be touching.

2) My LA experience. I was told that "there's no good teachers in LA". I thought it must be wrong. However, after a year in classes here, it does seem things are more 'lite' and overall, with a focus on script analysis and finished product--geared towards working scenes, rather than quality and depth. I've been to C@rter Th0r, with a teacher who's no longer there. I thought it was good but not great. He let a lot slide. It was pretty balanced, and stronger on script analysis than my first teacher, but was a little directorial as well.

From there I went to 1v@na chubb_ck in one of her teachers' classes. I don't mind it. But he can be very directorial, with a clear existing idea of how a scene should go. Some of this may even be arbitrary and his own personal preference on viewpoint or interpretation of a scene.

Being told and shown with a line reading or two how to do a scene (including blocking and specific beats) may be something I have to deal with on set, but as far as a core learning environment, it doesn't thrill me. "What did you pick. Okay, you picked B. Well, I would pick C. Like this. Or something like that" Okay, yes we should work towards finished product, but this is not exactly inspiring.

Another thing is, serious work and progress requires a certain gravitas and yes, sacred regard. Great, wrenching work and openness about personal history can't just be assumed because of the technique in the book and the name on the studio. I'm just not feeling that hardcore drive there on a gut level. Actually I did a scene that wasn't strong enough the other day. Honestly, being told to do it again--right--would have sufficed. I didn't want to tell my substitution to him and the whole class, and he got really mad. I didn't budge, but I was like, hey. If I felt like this was the kinda place where this was going on, I wouldn't think twice about it. I just don't feel like telling you. He said that was the key to my problem, that I was closed down emotionally, shut off. That's generally true, but all the elements were in place and I was ready, and he was freaking out about this bs. He could have elicited a much different result in the same scene in that moment, rather than making an issue out of a minor privilege that he assumed. So anyway, yeah, I might be done there.

It's ironic that my first teacher, who was a casting director, who supposedly shouldn't understand actors as well as an actual actor-teacher would, just got it so much better, and to such a deeper level. Am I asking for too much? Maybe I should just shut up and bring the goods to class, every class, any class.

No, I'm not an acting genius. I'll have the same issues pointed out by any teacher. But I want to be inspired to do great work, which I am capable of, and how to teach myself and discover how to do great work every time. Not just told how to do a scene the way the teacher likes to have it done.

3) So, what I want.

I'm looking for a teacher that inspires, demands only the best, is driven and drives one towards ultimate emotional truth, and doesn't let any facile BS slide, from me or others. Merely asking what somebody's substitution was is not enough.

It'd be a bonus if scene partners weren't flaky too. What is with rehearsing at a coffee shop? B1tch please, I want to make a mark.

Am I being a douche? NY trained LA actors please weigh in.

For the record, I'm no expert. Just an average Joe.

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This is Mr. Coburn typing to you.

This subject is just too juicy not to respond.

First, a caveat; what I will describe here happened 20 years ago. Some of the teachers I reference have gone on to other things. I will not mention their names because I was in Broadcasting for many years and I know better than to cite here-say. Having said that ...

Our theater company did a play called "Aaron Gillespie Will Make You A Star (No Experience Necessary)." The play was about a megalomaniacal acting teacher in Hollywood. He was fictitious to be sure but was in fact a composite of acting teachers that our authors and cast had researched. They went to every class they were permitted to audit. Some classes required that you pay to audit and they attended those as well.

Many of the exercises they garnered from their research were so outrageous we could not use them in the play because no one would believe them. The ones we did use were bizarre enough.

Let me say this, when you go to a class or audit a class, ask yourself, "What does this have to do with acting?" There are teachers in L.A. now who ask you to divulge your most personal secrets in class (some, while you stand naked on stage), to crawl around like an animal, to scream, to walk through a wall of Jell-o or pretend that you are bacon frying. Ask yourself, when have you ever read a scene where these things took place?

The worst was when you were on stage, working on a scene, only to have the teacher shout out something personal he knew about you (usually garnered from your intake interview), bringing you to a state of humiliation and tears, when you would be told you were wonderful and asked how you would carry that crap over to your auditions.

Oh, here's a free acting lesson; Auditioning IS Acting! Learn to act and your auditions will go well. You will audition for the rest of your life. Auditioning is the day-to-day job of acting. Okay, I got that off my chest and saved you thousands on workshops and 'intensives.'

Aaron Gillespie would pour affection and accolades on every new ingenue who came to class, promise introductions with big directors, and tell these young women how 'wonderful' they were (until he got them in bed after which their work became awful and the next cupcake got all his icing). If I had not seen this in reality I would not have believed it possible.

Fervently dry-humping your scene partner then launching into your monologue was common practice in the Gillespie method. Dredging up traumatic memories then going into a speech or a scene is still standard in some acting schools (by the way, that's not art, that's sick and will make you neurotic - in psycho-social medicine that behavior is called, ruminating or colloquially, "crazy-making").

There was a 'personality test' at the outset of Aarons' class so it could be determined for what parts you would be 'right' and how to train you, but we couldn't use that element for long because of threats of legal action against us from the school here in L.A. where they do that.

At one point Aaron threatened a student by aiming a gun at his head to get some real emotion out of him. That was taken from a real acting class in L.A. Telling students they are too fat, too skinny, or that their body parts are either too big or not big enough is standard fare among these fakers as well and so were included in the play.

After doing that play for a couple of years we were approached by an Italian director who bought the play and hired the original cast to act it -- a Hollywood story like that should have a happy ending but his movie sucked.

With regard to "Big Name Schools" again, you have to ask yourself, "Does that teacher actually teach there?" Stanislavski, Meisner, Chekhov, Adler, Lewis, Strasberg, etc., all dead. They may have a name on a door but they can not tell you what is right or how to fix what needs fixing. The majority of teachers who use those names to sell their classes in Los Angeles never met let alone studied with those teachers whose names appear in their advertising.

Finding a teacher who is at once an artistic guide and has substantial professional experience is harder than you might think. In L.A. you are literally looking for a needle in a haystack of needles. Just because someone is, or was, a working actor or casting director does not mandate that they are good teachers.

You need to find the person who trained to be a teacher, who has a passion for teaching, and has a clear vision of what is possible artistically as well as a specific path to those possibilities. You also need that same someone to have decades of experience in the daily grind of pulling up the best they've got to give, in every moment of every show.

Attending acting school, like attending law school, is a seminal period in a person's life. The associations you make, the skills and talent you cultivate, the habits you build in those environments serve you for your entire career. If your experience leaves you with bitterness or upset, this is a lesson. Learn it, move on, but don't quit. A real actor can not quit at gun point.

Now, to plug my own school -- Nah, that would make me one of them.

Mr. Coburn

Ah, one additional note.

I know the owner of TVI. He's a likable fellow whose main interest is garnering a comfortable living for himself and his family. These are not bad things.

It is his marketing research that tells him what to offer and for how long. If it sells well to neophyte actors then he packages it and sells it. That's called, "The American Way." That the offerings are not substantial enough for real learning to take place is less of a concern to him than what he can sell. I've expressed this to him personally so I know he knows.

What should be of uncompromising importance to an acting teacher is that The Work be kept alive. A great acting teacher will be one whose primary interest is in being an uncorrupted link between the past and the future of great acting.

"I know where great acting lives and how to get there!" He or she might say, "It's that way, now find your own way there, I'll be here to keep you headed in the right direction." Find that fellow and you will be on an artistic path. Art precedes commerce. Once you establish that you know how to act people will hire you to act. If you focus on working without learning your job first well, you could guess how well that would work in any career.

Okay, I'll shut up now.

Mr. Coburn

The so called "Career Counselors" working at TVI are mostly unqualified (there are of course a few that know what they're doing and actually working). But instead of actually giving good advice, they seem more interested in keeping you enrolled so they can get their commission off of your class enrollment fees.

I called TVI awhile ago to get info on their prices and what not (before reading these boards), and no joke, they must have called me at least FIFTEEN TIMES trying to get me to sign up.

That screams "WE WANT MONEY" to me!

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Originally posted by JD.Coburn:
Ah, one additional note.
I know the owner of TVI. He's a likable fellow whose main interest is garnering a comfortable living for himself and his family. These are not bad things.

YOU MUST BE TALKING ABOUT SOMEONE ELSE, MR. COBURN. The only "owner of TVI" I know of is a psychopath by the name of Alan ******** [I won't risk censorship by listing his last name]. He's the most evil, greedy sociopath that God ever put on earth. Nearly everyone that's ever worked for him has left TVI in disgust, including his Number One, Lisa Gold, who left him for good to open her own operation, The Actors Connection. My BGF was his top producer in NYC until the cheap skate tried to renign on his promise to all of his employees for "free classes whenever available." Even one of the most respected Broadway casting directors of all time, after finding out Alan's true nature, left TVI with nothing but bad things to say about the man, never to return. Even his OWN MOTHER ( attending an office meeting at the time) told his stunned employees, "I can't believe I gave birth to that man."
"A LIKABLE FELLOW"?? COMPARED TO WHO?? SATAN???

Sorry, in my rant I forgot the biggest scam of all, The Lee Strasberg Institute in LA.
Unless you relish acting with non-English speaking wannabees here for their Green Cards, I'd pass.
I don't know about anyone else but I shy away from any school that has the word "Academy" or "Institute" after it.

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Originally posted by jazzygeoff:
Sorry, in my rant I forgot the biggest scam of all, The Lee Strasberg Institute in LA.
Unless you relish acting with non-English speaking wannabees here for their Green Cards, I'd pass.
I don't know about anyone else but I shy away from any school that has the word "Academy" or "Institute" after it.

Haha! So true! I audited a class there once and it was full of Russian and Chinese students who could barely speak English. The school clearly died when Lee died.

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Originally posted by jazzygeoff:

quote:

Originally posted by JD.Coburn:
Ah, one additional note.
I know the owner of TVI. He's a likable fellow whose main interest is garnering a comfortable living for himself and his family. These are not bad things.

YOU MUST BE TALKING ABOUT SOMEONE ELSE, MR. COBURN. The only "owner of TVI" I know of is a psychopath by the name of Alan ******** [I won't risk censorship by listing his last name]. He's the most evil, greedy sociopath that God ever put on earth. Nearly everyone that's ever worked for him has left TVI in disgust, including his Number One, Lisa Gold, who left him for good to open her own operation, The Actors Connection. My BGF was his top producer in NYC until the cheap skate tried to renign on his promise to all of his employees for "free classes whenever available." Even one of the most respected Broadway casting directors of all time, after finding out Alan's true nature, left TVI with nothing but bad things to say about the man, never to return. Even his OWN MOTHER ( attending an office meeting at the time) told his stunned employees, "I can't believe I gave birth to that man."
"A LIKABLE FELLOW"?? COMPARED TO WHO?? SATAN???

Wow! I met him once and he seemed like a nice man. Maybe it was a facade.

I think his last name is no secret.

OF COURSE IT WAS A FACADE. Do you think that all sociopaths wear badges on their shirts saying: "Hello. I'm actually a total jerk who wants your money"??
At first meeting, I found Alan to be quite personable, even friendly. But when I talked with his staff, an entirely different picture evolved, one of someone often brutal and out of control. And this is no rare, isolated incident. It's commonplace.
In a effort to paint this head case in the most positive light possible, I've actually left out some of the more negative aspects of the man. How he's managed to succeed all these years in spite of the way he treats people, including his own employees is totally beyond me. If you don't believe me, just research everything I've said here. The more you dig, the uglier it gets. He's genuinely certifiable.

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